The Committee of Safety, formally the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety, was a 13-member council, head of the Hawaiian League also known as the Annexation Club. The Committee was composed of American Hawaiian and European Hawaiian citizens including Sanford B. Dole who were members of the Missionary Party, as well as American and European residents in Hawaii that planned and carried out the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi on January 17, 1893. The goal of this group was to achieve annexation of Hawaiʻi to the United States. The new independent Republic of Hawaiʻi government was thwarted in this goal by the administration of President Grover Cleveland, and it was not until 1898 that the United States Congress approved a joint resolution of annexation creating the U.S. Territory of Hawaiʻi.
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The movement
This was not the first attempt to end the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi: in 1887 the Hawaiian League forced King David Kalākaua to enact the Bayonet Constitution which limited his power. The Committee of Safety was organized by the Hawaiian League, a group of over 400 businessmen, merchants, and planters. The group's unofficial leader was Lorrin A. Thurston, the grandson of missionaries and publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser, a newspaper that is still published today. Although the politicians changed the name of their party from "Missionary" to "Reform", many wanted to become part of the United States, not just reform the monarchy.[1] This was why the Hawaiian League was also called the Annexation Club, although not often in public. After Queen Liliʻuokalani came to power in 1891, she attempted to restore power to the throne. This caused the group to act again.
Revolution
On January 17, 1893 about 1500 members of the Honolulu Rifles, a militia composed of local citizens, occupied government buildings, disarmed the Royal Guard, and declared the Provisional Government of Hawaiʻi.
As these events were unfolding, American citizens living in Honolulu expressed concern for their safety and property.[2] United States Government Minister John L. Stevens, informed about possible threats to non-combatant American lives and property by the Committee of Safety,[3] obliged their request and summoned a company of uniformed U.S. Marines from the U.S.S. Boston and two companies of U.S. sailors to land on the Kingdom and take up positions at the U.S. Legation, Consulate, and Arion Hall on the afternoon of January 16, 1893. 162 sailors and Marines aboard the USS Boston in Honolulu Harbor came ashore well-armed but under strict orders of neutrality. As U.S. troops marched past ʻIolani Palace on their way to their stations, they dipped their U.S. flag, as a sign of respect to the Queen.
The sailors and Marines did not enter the Palace grounds or take over any buildings, and never fired a shot.[4]
The Hawaiian League unofficially adopted the American Flag to appeal to the US and promote annexation. The flag was raised over ʻIolani Palace by John L. Stevens on January 17th, 1893. The flag was eventually lowered by James H. Blount that April for spreading a false presumption that the United States had taken control.
International Response
During the overthrow, the Japanese Imperial Navy gunboat Naniwa was docked at Pearl Harbor. The gunboat's commander, Heihachiro Togo, who later commanded the Japanese battleship fleet at Tsushima, refused to accede to the Provisional Government's demands that he strike the colors of the Kingdom, but later lowered the colors on order of the Japanese Government. Along with every other international legations in Honolulu, the Japanese Consulate-General, Suburo Fujii, quickly recognized the Provisional Government as the legitimate successor to the monarchy.[5]
Every government with a diplomatic presence in Hawaii recognized the Provisional Government within 48 hours of the overthrow, including the United States, although the recognition by the United States government and its further response is detailed in the section above on "American Response". Countries recognizing the new Provisional Government included Chile, Austro-Hungary, Mexico, Russia, the Netherlands, Imperial Germany, Sweden, Spain, Imperial Japan, Italy, Portugal, Britain, Denmark, Belgium, China, Peru, and France.[6] When the Republic of Hawaii was declared on July 4, 1894, immediate recognition was given by every nation with diplomatic relations with Hawaii, except for Britain, whose response came in November 1894.[7]
Members of the Committee of Safety
- Henry Ernest Cooper Sr., arrived in Hawaiʻi 1890 from Indiana, named chairman at mass meeting January 14, 1893
- Crister Bolte, German national, Hawaiian subject, member
- Andrew Brown, Scottish national, member
- Charles L. Carter, American, naturalized Hawaiian subject, member, died during the 1895 counter-revolution
- William Richards Castle, born in Honolulu 1849, attorney general for Kalakaua 1876, Hawaiian legislator 1878-88, member
- John Emmeluth, American citizen, member
- Theodore F. Lansing, American citizen, member
- John A. McCandless, American, naturalized Hawaiian subject, member
- F. W. McChesney, American citizen, member
- William Owen Smith, born on Kauaʻi 1838, sheriff on Kauaʻi and then Maui, deputy attorney general and legislator 1878-1892, member
- Edward Suhr, member
- Henry Waterhouse, Hawaiian subject of Tasmanian birth, came to Hawaiʻi 1851, member
- William C. Wilder, American, Hawaiian subject, member
See also
- 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii
- Reform Party of the Hawaiian Kingdom
- Provisional Government of Hawaii
- Republic of Hawaii
- Territory of Hawai'i
References
- ^ Ralph S. Kuykendall (1967). Hawaiian Kingdom 1874-1893, the Kalakaua Dynasticism. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0870224331.
- ^ The Morgan Report, p808-809, "At the request of many citizens, whose wives and families were helpless and in terror of an expected uprising of the mob, which would burn and destroy, a request was made and signed by all of the committee, addressed to Minister Stevens, that troops might be landed to protect houses and private property.
- ^ The Morgan Report, p881, "Under the diplomatic and naval rules, which were and are imperative, the U. S. minister and naval commander would have shamefully ignored their duty had they not landed the men of the Boston for the security of American life and property and the maintenance of public order, even had the committee of public safety not requested us to do."
- ^ The Morgan Report, p367, "In landing the troops from the Boston there was no demonstration of actual hostilities, and their conduct was as quiet and as respectful as it had been on many previous occasions when they were landed for the purpose of drill and practice. In passing the palace on their way to the point at which they were halted, the Queen appeared upon the balcony and the troops respectfully saluted her by presenting arms and dipping the flag, and made no demonstration of any hostile intent."
- ^ The Morgan Report, p1106-1107, "The receipt of your communication, dated the 17th instant, inclosing a copy of proclamation issued on the same day, informing me that for reasons set forth in said proclamation the Hawaiian monarchy has been abrogated and a Provisional Government established, which is now in possession of the Government departmental buildings, the archives, and the treasury, and requesting me on behalf of H. I. J. M.'s Government to recognize said Provisional Government as the de facto Government of the Hawaiian Islands, pending the receipt of instructions from H. I. J. M.'s Government, to whom advices of your action and of the position which I have taken in relation thereto have been despatched."
- ^ The Morgan Report, p 1103-1111
- ^ Andrade, Ernest (1996). The Unconquerable Rebel. The University Press of Colorado. pp. 147. ISBN 0870814176. "The provisional government, whatever its faults, had had little difficulty in obtaining recognition, even from Cleveland, and it was not considered likely that the republic would have any foreign problems. Recognition came even more quickly than it had in 1893, for at least there was no question of a revolution's having taken place or of the government's control of the domestic situation."
Further reading
- Liliuokalani, 1990, Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, ISBN 978-0-935180-85-5
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